Comic: Thunderbolt

#1,51-60 Download

Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt is a fictional superhero character originally owned by Charlton Comics and eventually acquired by DC Comics, notable for containing some of the earliest respectful invocations of Eastern mysticism in American pop culture. Later, ownership of the character reverted back to its creator, writer-artist Pete Morisi. Since his death in 2003, the character has been owned by his estate.

Publication history: Charlton Comics

The character debuted in Peter Cannon ... Thunderbolt #1 (Jan. 1966), part of Charlton editor Dick Giordano's "Action Heroes" superhero line. The series then took over the numbering of the defunct title Son of Vulcan, and ran from issue #50-60 (March-April 1966 - Nov. 1967), after which Morisi, a New York City Police Department officer and time-pressed with police work, left the title.

There were several backup series in Thunderbolt. "The Sentinels", by Gary Friedrich (writing his first superhero stories) and penciler-inker Sam Grainger, appeared in #54-59, and #60 had the Prankster, written by Dennis O'Neil with art by Jim Aparo.

Morisi, who'd done work for Lev Gleason Publications in the 1940s, reported in Comic Book Artist #9 (Aug. 2000) that he had attempted to buy the rights to the 1940s superhero Daredevil in the early 1960s. Gleason gave him his okay, but the character's primary writer-artist, Charles Biro, balked, requesting a percentage of future profits. Morisi declined and went on to create Thunderbolt in a scaled-down version of that Daredevil's symmetrically divided, red-and-blue costume.

As a police officer, Morisi signed his work with his initials, PAM, in order to keep his moonlighting hidden.

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